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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

John House - One Cup of Coffee With the Brewers

By Dennis Pajot

I ran across an article in the February 9, 1913, Milwaukee Journal about Native Americans playing in professional baseball. The article said in 1912 the Milwaukee Brewers had an Indian on the team "for all of two days when [business manager] Charlie Moll dug up John House and brought him on here for a tryout. He worked out just one afternoon in right garden, during which time Manager Duffy worried for fear that he would be hit on top of the head with a fly ball and injured before he could be brought in and shipped back to Iowa on the night train."

I looked in the SABR Encyclopedia and Baseball-Reference and found no John House listed as playing with the Brewers. I had no idea when this game was played—if it was even a game he played "right garden" in, or a practice season. I put the name John House into Google News, hoping against hope to find something. Shiver me timbers, there was one entry for John House, and it was the game he played in. Then I had only to back track in the newspapers and find all I could. I found quite a bit for a guy who only played one game with the American Association Brewers.

On Thursday, May 16, 1912, the Milwaukee Journal wrote:

"Looks as if everybody in the A.A. had got the speed bug in their bonnet. [Hugh] Duffy is particularly sweet on the speed stuff and added an outfielder, John Hause [sic], to his gang yesterday. Hause, according to dope, is lightening fast on the field and the bases. They say the newcomer, who is a full blooded Indian, by the way, is about as fast as [Ralph] Capron and you all know what that means."

The Milwaukee Sentinel of the same day reported:

"Manager Duffy announced the purchase of John House, a new outfielder, on Wednesday, from the Ottumwa, Ia. club of the Central association. House, who is an Indian, has been hitting the ball at a frightful pace in the bush, and as he is a reliable fielder and a fast runner, Duffy decided to given him a chance. He is expected to report here on Thursday."

The May 17 Milwaukee Journal reported that House arrived in Milwaukee the day before and there was a chance he would play in that afternoon’s game. The paper reported House was “a big, powerful-looking chap.”

The Milwaukee Sentinel of May 17 was a gold mine. Here is the portion of the local baseball article concerning the new Brewer.

John House, the Oneida brave joined our aggregation of nations on Thursday, and there is a possibility that Duf will insert him in the box score on Friday. House is a son of the Oneidas, and he lives on the Oneida reservation in Wisconsin. He is a big husky looking fellow, and looks not unlike Big Chief Meyers on the Giants.

He started to play professional ball three years ago with the Burlington club of the Central Association. He had some trouble there and jumped to the outlaw league on the Pacific coast where he played until a year ago. Of course he was put on the blacklist but he managed to play ten or twelve games with the Appleton club of the W-I [Wisconsin-Illinois] league last spring before it was discovered that he was under the ban. This spring he was restored to good standing on condition that he would report to the Ottumwa club, which is owned by the former owners of the Burlington franchise. He began to punch the ball like a fiend as soon as the season opened, and his warclub boosted him to our select set. If he can whale the ball the redskin will be a blessing in disguise, for Duffy surely needs an able bodied swatssmith on the club.

—Milwaukee Sentinel May 17, 1912

House was a very popular player in Iowa. Only a few days before the Brewers acquired the outfielder the Waterloo Evening Courier wrote on May 13: "John House, the Indian, who has been on Ned Egans’s pay roll for several seasons, was given an ovation when he stepped to the plate the first time. The 'big chef' was always popular in this city and his absence of two years did not lessen his popularity in Waterloo." A year and a half later (December 20, 1913)—when he was traded by Ottumwa—the Waterloo Evening Courier wrote House was "one of the best drawing cards in the minors." Manager Egan certainly liked the big outfielder, as he owned the rights to him five separate times - in Burlington and Ottumwa.

But there were rumblings about House's playing. On May 17, 1912, the Waterloo Reporter ran this dispatch, originally from the Burlington Gazette:

John House, the full-blooded Indian and thoroughbred base ball player, who in the minds of many is one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, natural ball player ever seen in these parts, has been sold by Manager Ned Egan of Ottumwa to Milwaukee. Report does not state the price secured for the best of all Indians, nor whether or not he will be sent to the new club at once.

The sale of House had been anticipated from the very start of the season. House, by his indifferent manner, wasted some of the best individual baseball talent ever bestowed on any man. He never cared much about the game, but nature had made him an adept at all angles of it. McCloskey, who had him at St. Louis, after purchasing him from Burlington, said that a man was never given a better pair of eyes than the good-natured Indian had, and this was true, for the Burlington fan who saw John House strike out more than twice during the entire time he was with Burlington saw something that few of his friends did.

House refused to stay with St. Louis because he was a bench warmer, and his refusal no doubt robbed him of a chance to become one of the stars of the country. He has wasted the past four or five years, and still is so good that he was picked up two weeks after he got back into the game. The Milwaukee ownership is practically the same as the St. Louis management which owned him, and they know what they are getting. A slugging batter, a position bunter, a speed man in all respects, and a brilliant outfielder, is House, and he may yet make the most of his talent. He is at no disadvantage in faster company, as nothing can embarrass him in playing the game and no pinch can take his presence of mind away from him.

On May 18 the Milwaukee Sentinel wrote:

"House whaled the ball hard in batting practice yesterday morning, but he is said to be an uncertain outfielder.... John House practiced in the field with the Brewers before the game [against the St. Paul Saints] and Duffy had him tabbed for right field until it was announced that [Ed] Karger, a left hand pitcher, would work. [Regular right fielder Newt Randall played right field]. It is probable that the redskin will get in the game this afternoon."

John House played right field in the Saturday May 18, 1912, game at Athletic Park against the Minneapolis Millers. The box score showed he went 0 for 4 with no runs scored, no putouts, assists or errors. The Minneapolis pitcher was the right hander Ralph Comstock.

The Milwaukee Journal game article said this about him: "John House, the Brewers' latest addition in outfielders, was tried but after the first ripple of applause there was very little cause to be overjoyed over his coming. As a fence breaker, he failed to show anything in four chances. In the field he had no chance other than to return the remnants of a single, which he did in anything but a finished manner. However, his surroundings were new and his team mates were not much of an inspiration, so it's hardly fair to judge him yet." In his notes on the game Journal sports columnist Brownie wrote: "House did not have anything but a thinking part in the outfield, while the only time he hit the ball out of the diamond was on his fourth attempt."

The Milwaukee Sentinel did not make mention of House in its game summary in its May 19 issue, but the next morning had these two sentences. "John House, the Oneida Indian secured from the Ottumwa, Iowa club was turned back to that organization by Manager Duffy on Sunday [May 19]. He did not show A.A. class, and was handed the tinware quickly. He only came here for a trial."

The Milwaukee Journal of May 20 wrote: "Outfielder John House, the Oneida Indian, did not last long as a Brewer. He was shipped back right after his showing in Saturday's game."

For the record, the Brewers lost to the Millers 6 to 0 in the game House played in.

John House ended up playing 122 games with the Ottumwa Speedboys of the Class D Central Association in 1912. He played in various lower minor leagues from 1904 to 1914. This is the short stat list for House from Baseball-Reference, to which I added the one game I found with the Brewers:

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Chance Michaels is a native New Yorker who spent many of his formative years in Milwaukee and developed a lifelong interest in the region's sporting history. In addition to his work with BorchertField.com, he runs the Green Bay Packers Uniform Database, an ongoing research project devoted to the design history of that other Wisconsin pro team. When not immersing himself in old game programs, wire service photos and newspaper archives, he produces theatre Off-Off-Broadway, and was formerly a contributor to The Onion. He lives in New York City with his family.

Paul Tenpenny was born, raised in and is proud to be a citizen of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Paul lives within walking distance of Miller Park and its predecessor, Milwaukee County Stadium. A lifelong collector of various antiques and collectibles, he specializes in Milwaukee and Wisconsin related Sports and Historic Memorabilia. Paul has been writing articles on Milwaukee Sports collectibles since 2007 and is in his 3rd year of writing his popular Vintage Brew series. An active member of SABR and its local Ken Keltner chapter, his memorabilia has been displayed at both the Milwaukee Historical Society, the Milwaukee Public Library and the Wisconsin State Historical Museum.

Dennis Pajot is a life long resident of Milwaukee, who enjoys as a hobby researching Milwaukee baseball. He is an active member of SABR, both the local Ken Keltner chapter and the national group. His Milwaukee baseball publications include "The Rise of Milwaukee Baseball: The Cream City From Midwestern Outpost to the Major Leagues, 1859-1901" (McFarland & Company, 2009) (Winner - 2010 Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award) and "The Greatest Baseball Game Ever Played Anywhere" (Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring 2009) detailing an 1899 baseball game in Milwaukee between City of Milwaukee officials and State of Wisconsin officials to help the sufferers of a tornado in New Richmond, Wisconsin.

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